Does a parent own their child?

This was the title of the debate in Year 5 and 6 this afternoon. The JLT and School Council representatives from Year 5 and 6 have been working in teams for several weeks to prepare speeches for both sides of this argument.

Today we invited our local MP Sir Graham Brady to come and chair the debate.

On the way into the hall every child in Year 5 and 6 was given 2 coloured pieces of paper, orange and blue.

Sir Graham Brady introduced the debate and tossed a coin to see which side would go first. Ellie and Niamh were the first speakers for their teams and gave fantastic speeches outlining their team's ideas. There was then time for members of the audience (Year 5/6) to ask questions or make comments. Antonio and Aaron spoke as the second speakers from each team to sum up their arguments.

While we had time to think about which side to support Sir Graham spoke about how debates happen in parliament and how important it was that young people learn to express their ideas clearly and that he was very impressed with the level of debate in our school.

As everyone left they voted by putting either their orange piece of paper or their blue piece of paper into a voting box.

The JLT and School Council were all amazing at coming up with arguments, speaking and being polite and attentive to the opposition but the votes had to be counted to find the winning team......

105 orange - No

47 blue - Yes